'Go Big' to Protect American Pacific Remote Islands

Over the past decade, The Pew Charitable Trusts' Global Ocean Legacy project has played a key role in urging governments around the world to protect nearly 1 million square miles of ocean from threats to marine ecosystems.

The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the Chagos Marine Reserve—currently the world's largest—in the Indian Ocean are just two examples of governments enacting historic marine conservation in recent years.

And history could soon be made again, as the Obama administration considers expanding and fully protecting the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the South Pacific Ocean. With the largest exclusive economic zone in the world, the U.S. has a tremendous opportunity to be a global leader in protecting our oceans.

As highlighted in a radio interview Aug. 12, 2014, by Public Radio International's "The World" program, Global Ocean Legacy Director Matt Rand is calling on the administration to "go big" when determining the size and level of protection for the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument expansion.